PARIS, June 18 — In order to boost the competitiveness and profits of French companies, the government is moving to lower the social security contributions paid by private business. Taxpayers — most of whom are workers — will have to make up the shortfall through a value-added tax on consumer goods. This amounts to a sales tax, and since the tax is the same no matter what one’s income, it will cost workers a greater percentage of their income than rich people.
Moreover, this is a racist tax since workers of Arab and African origin are disproportionately poorer and will pay a larger percentage of their income than higher-income people.
The idea was advanced in a June 8 report co-authored by three bosses’ organizations and three sellout trade union confederations.
This week, both the Industry Minister and the ruling UMP party’s general secretary pushed debating the scheme, the first step in passing a law. To win public backing, the measure is billed as an “anti-offshoring value-added tax.” They claim that wages in France are “too high” because of the social security contributions the bosses have to pay. The bosses pretend they won’t move their factories to low-wage countries if they get what amounts to a wage-cut for workers — the new tax would cut into workers’ wages.
Blackmail
This is straightforward blackmail: telling workers their jobs will disappear overseas if they don’t cough up.
Industry Minister Eric Besson said, “The idea of shifting company social security contributions to a tax on another tax base, like consumption, merits debate. The cost of labor is one of the key elements in competitiveness.”
By cutting social security contributions, French bosses hope to lower their costs and undersell their imperialist rivals, increasing their competitiveness. But once the new “anti-offshoring value-added tax” has been established, the second round will surely see the politicians cutting social security benefits in order to lower taxes.
Co-authoring this scheme, set out in a 40-page report entitled “Approach to French Competitiveness,” represents yet another betrayal by three sellout union confederations. It highlights the bankruptcy of the unity-at-any-price strategy pursued by the supposedly “class-struggle” unions.
In 2009, the three sellout unions — the CFDT, the Roman Catholic CFTC, and the business executives’ union, the CGC — began working with the bosses to collect data on economic indicators. Now they’ve gone a step further. They want the bosses’ government to “rethink the tax base that finances social protection.”
A worker’s income is composed of wages and benefits, including social security benefits. The proposed cut in our income will increase the boss’s profits. The three sellout unions are quite simply urging the government to change the tax laws so that the bosses can steal more of the wealth that we — and we alone — create!
Union Leaders in Bed
with the Bosses
This attack on the working class is accompanied by nauseating class collaboration. The bosses and union leaders announced in chorus that they had “gone beyond ideological approaches.” CFTC president Joseph Thouvenel trumpeted that “confronted with a fall in competitiveness, we have exited the class struggle to look reality in the face.”
For the past three years, the three openly sellout union confederations have been working hand-in-glove with the bosses to concoct this report. Now they intend to use the document to indoctrinate their members and as a basis of reference in wage negotiations.
Throughout last year’s fight against raising the retirement age, the leaders of the so-called “class-struggle” union confederations — particularly France’s biggest confederation, the CGT (which represents 34% of all workers) — insisted on preserving unity with these sellouts (who together represent 38% of workers). They claimed this was “the key to success.”
But in effect, this strategy gave the sellouts a veto on any possible actions. It guaranteed the struggle would never exceed symbolic one-day strikes. It nixed any possibility of an unlimited general strike. The struggle against raising the retirement age was lost.
Clearly this “unity strategy” was nothing but a fig leaf. It concealed the unwillingness of the “class-struggle” union leaders to really organize against the attack on the retirement age. It allowed them to sabotage the millions-strong movement while shifting the blame to the more open sellouts. So-called “progressives” like CGT leader Bernard Thibault are no better than CFTC’s Joseph Thouvenel.
When masses of workers here understand the pro-capitalist nature of all the reformist union leaders, of whatever stripe, it will provide the basis to develop the needed revolutionary communist leadership. Organizing to convince workers of this reality is one of the important tasks of communists in France.
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PLP’ers: Racist Capitalism’s the Problem N.J. State Workers: ‘Cut Bankers and Bosses’
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- 23 June 2011 83 hits
TRENTON, N.J., June 16 — Thousands of state workers rallied at the state capitol against massive cutbacks in pensions, and increases in insurance contributions. The state is also making huge racist cuts in welfare programs for mainly black and Latino workers. Four Democratic members of the legislature, including Senate President Sweeney, added their votes to those of the Republicans to pass a deal made with New Jersey Governor Christie.
Christie announced the deal to a standing ovation of business executives last night. Under the bill, retirees would lose Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) for at least 30 years, the retirement age would go from 60 to 65, and pension contributions would go up by a third. Health insurance costs would double or triple, and unions won’t be able to renegotiate contributions for at least four years.
The best the union leaders could muster in response was “civil disobedience” by a few union leaders inside the hearing chamber, and complaints that state bosses are “trampling on our fundamental democratic rights.” Capitalism is a dictatorship of the bosses over the working class, not the other way around. The union leadership has no plan to reach out to and ally with private-sector workers, much less organize massive strikes to shut down the bosses’ government. Instead, they are relying on “friendly” Democrats in the Assembly to “kill the bill.”
PLP members and CHALLENGE readers attended the rally. A flyer was given out calling for unity between employed and unemployed workers against racist cutbacks in the state budget targeting unemployed workers. The flyer was received positively and several good conversations were had with our fellow workers. Here are some excerpts from the flyer:
“Last year at this time, thousands of workers were protesting state budget cuts. One of those, the General Assistance (GA) program was put back on the chopping block in late June, 2010. But, right after the restoration, the state welfare administration sent “review teams” into Essex County welfare offices servicing GA clients. Since then there has been a “slash and burn” approach to GA, directly coming from the review teams. The latest attack is the “discovery” by the state that hundreds of “employable” GA recipients are at the end of their time limit. These clients face termination of rental assistance, followed by eviction.
“The GA program is the last resort for tens of thousands of mostly black and Latino urban unemployed workers without children. Many long-term recipients have serious medical issues. Others have social problems which prevent them from getting jobs. But the real problem for those who are able to work is that there are no jobs, and there haven’t been any for some time. This results in systemic unemployment among black and Latino workers, double what it is among white workers. Because of this built-in disparity, we in PLP say unemployment is racist.
“Capitalism, an economic system based upon huge profits for bankers and bosses, actually needs unemployment. Unemployment helps keep wages down by providing a ready market of the unemployed willing to work for less. Passivity in the face of unemployment gives the bosses the flexibility they need to relocate their businesses when their profits aren’t high enough. Only a communist system would eliminate the need for unemployment since workers would produce in order to meet the needs of the whole working class, not for the profits of the bosses.”
Instead of sitting back while our most vulnerable brothers and sisters face the wrath of the budget-cutters, employed workers should unite with our natural allies — unemployed workers who occupy a position we may soon be in ourselves — to resist these cuts. N.J. PLP members and friends are beginning a campaign to fight the cuts and build the party in the process. Stay tuned!
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Israeli Cops Attack Rail Workers’ Wildcat vs. Privatization
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- 23 June 2011 81 hits
ISRAEL, May 12 — Railway workers here went on a wildcat strike protesting the arrest of their union leaders during a demonstration held the previous day. That action was protesting the railway management’s decision to privatize car maintenance service, transferring it to private manpower companies. This caused hundreds of railway workers to be laid off and, in the process, damaging and endangering the public safety.
Israeli police, always ready and eager to serve local bosses, violently attacked the workers, arresting ten of the railway workers’ union leaders. The next day, the courts — another organ of the bosses — issued a decision forbidding the workers to strike. The railway workers defied the court’s decision and wildcatted, demanding the immediate release of their comrades from jail.
This is a typical example of creeping fascism: the use of a police force to intimidate and break down the spirit of workers struggling to defend their jobs. The railway workers showed us the way to fight fascism — they challenged the bosses and their rotten capitalist system.
In recent years we have witnessed a process by all Israeli governments, right and “left,” aimed at destroying organized labor. “Public” companies are handed over to private bosses and manpower companies, the modern slaveowners. Thus, workers are forced to work for slave wages with no collective contracts.
The capitalists and their servants in government have wanted to privatize Israel Railway for a long time and hand it over to a private local tycoon. To achieve this, they are leading a campaign to de-legitimize railway workers. They cut the public safety budget endangering passengers while putting the blame on the railway workers, setting the public against the workers.
Privatization of public services, including transportation, has failed in other countries and proved ineffective. Despite this, the bosses are determined to transfer the railway service to one of their own in order to extract maximum profit.
We in PLP strengthen and support the railway workers in their struggle to block the bosses’ aims. In their brave actions, the railway workers proved that workers’ unity and determination to fight for a just cause can defeat the bosses’ police and courts.
We support their firm stand to prevent manpower companies from bringing in cheap slave labor to replace fully-experienced and trained workers and in doing so endangering the public safety. But under capitalism workers never win. Even if these reforms are won, they will eventually be taken away in the name of profit. Only when workers hold state power, will we have control to make decisions that will truly benefit all workers and not just a few rich bosses.
AL-WALAJA, EAST JERUSALEM, June 8 — A group of PL’ers visited the village of al-Walaja guided by a village council member. The village is near the Har Giloh neighborhood and the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), and is home to 2,600 workers in Palestine. There is a separation wall between the village and its fields. There is a separate entry gate for Israeli settlers to al-Walaja and Beit Jallah. These settlers from Susya occasionally come to attack the village – to close the water line, poison the vegetation or burn trees. Across the apartheid-style “separation” wall, there is a new Israeli settlement called “Givat Yael”; this is the Zionist dream of “Greater Jerusalem” — stealing land all over the place.
Until the wall was built in April 2010, al-Walaja was open to Jerusalem. It is still relatively easy to get to al-Walaja from the Knesset, but when the wall is completed, access will be permitted only through an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint.
There is also a bridge connecting Giloh to the Israeli settlements, which can only be used by Jews. Last year, this was brought to court because it was built on private Palestinian land. Its racist exclusion of Palestinian vehicles could not be justified by “security” excuses. The main reason it exists is to freeze Palestinian land development and push Palestinians away from their homes by making their lives intolerable.
One third of al-Walaja’s houses were demolished or heavily fined due to alleged “construction permit violations!” Half of the village is within Jerusalem’s municipal jurisdiction, while the other half is controlled by the IDF’s “Civil” Administration. The residents of al-Walaja have Palestinian IDs and thus no civil rights under Israeli law, despite the fact that they could prove that they lived on their lands since before the 1948 war. Al-walaja needs two schools, but in practice there is only one. The infrastructure is also terrible.
The only solution is the dictatorship of the proletariat worldwide. In a communist state, workers will receive according to need and work together to build a better future for everyone. The capitalist racist Israeli regime is colonial by definition: it enforces the exploitation and division of the working class, both Jews and Arabs. Therefore, it must be replaced by communist workers’ state.
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Communists Are Attacked: Teachers, Students and Parents Fight Back!
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- 08 June 2011 87 hits
BROOKLYN, NY May 26 — More than one hundred students, teachers, and parents held a militant rally outside Clara Barton High School to fight an attack against two communist teachers. The protest was sparked by the principal launching an investigation against four teachers since last fall.
The teachers subsequently received a letter from the Special Commissioner of Investigation that detailed their political activities over the last several years and concluded that they had “recruited students to attend an unauthorized trip to [an anti-budget-cut] rally in Washington, D.C.” The letter concluded, “It is the recommendation of this office that appropriate disciplinary action be taken against….” The teachers are still waiting for a decision on this disciplinary action, which was supposed to be handed down by May 27.
The day before the decision was due, the Department of Education (DoE) and its accomplices drew a resounding response at the rally. The protestors demanded an end to the investigation, and that no charges be lodged against these two teachers. Chants of “Fight back!” and “Education, not investigation!” rang out loud and clear. A student and a teacher gave excellent speeches attacking the DOE’s racist and fascist methods (see below).
When the cops were called and stopped the use of our bullhorn, the picketers continued without it. The head of the security lied to students, telling them they had to move away from the school. When the crowd heard this, they started chanting “The principal is a liar, we’ll set his ass on fire!” As they booed the security chief, he quickly ran back inside the school. The rally ended on a high note, with everyone marching through the neighborhood. The community was enthusiastic at the sight of young and old, black, Latino and white marching together!
A Fascist Culture of Investigations
The initial DOE investigation began in 2007, two years after the Katrina disaster, when Clara Barton teachers and students went to New Orleans over winter and summer vacations to help clean up the Ninth Ward, to organize against the racism of various government agencies, and to fight for communism. Racist principal Forman had tried to prevent these activities. He sent a letter to every parent to warn that trips to New Orleans were not school-approved. But he wasn’t able to stop it.
In 2009, another Clara Barton contingent was among many PL’ers and friends who traveled to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s raid against slavery. Again, racist pig Forman warned of “disciplinary action” if teachers accompanied their students.
Once again, Threats Were Ineffective
Last October, members of the Clara Barton community boarded a UFT-sponsored bus and joined tens of thousands in Washington, D.C., to rally against the Tea Party. Thousands of CHALLENGEs were distributed throughout the day. Although the rally had been designed to win workers and students to the Democratic Party, Progressive Labor Party members organized our own march within the big rally. We chanted many anti-racist and pro-communist slogans.
On the Monday following the Saturday rally, the assistant principal of security questioned some students as they entered the school. One was visibly carrying a copy of CHALLENGE. This led to an interrogation by the principal and assistant principal, with students asked to give up names of others who attended the rally. Then their parents were called. The parents were angry that their children had been intimidated and harassed by these creeps. In every case, the parents had either attended the rally themselves or given their signed permission for their children to go. They all knew that it was not a school-sanctioned trip. “My weekend, my business” became the rallying cry.
After the principal relayed this development to the DOE’s Special Commissioner of Investigations, all the students and parents were called into the school again. The four teachers, who attended the rally, were also called in. None of them had anything to say to these DOE bureaucrats.
PLP Members Fight Racism!
Meanwhile, Clara Barton is becoming more a jail than a school. The latest punitive policy from the dean’s office is detention, which is now imposed for the most trivial violations of the dress code. But detention has nothing to do with education. It’s an instrument of political control and intimidation.
Our school reflects the extreme racism built into the capitalist system. Serving mainly black and Latino students, it receives less funding from the DOE than the “specialized” schools which have high populations of white and Asian students. Clara Barton’s large Haitian, bilingual population receives the worst treatment of all. Their classes are often taught by teachers who lack certification in the subject area. Students are treated like criminals by the deans and security. It is no coincidence that despicable racist pig Forman has targeted communists who fight these racist attacks.
Communism is Our Weapon Against the Bosses
It’s not surprising that CHALLENGE was mentioned specifically in the warning letter given to Clara Barton students, or that the principal has singled out two teachers who are members of PLP.
Over the last several years, CHALLENGE has been distributed widely in the school, often 200 or more per issue. Teacher-student study groups meet regularly. The Party here has grown steadily.
Communists are dedicated to the liberation of the working class. The DOE bosses hope that they can frighten students or staff members from following our leadership, but this strategy has proven a failure so far. From Paul Robeson to W.E.B. DuBois, communists have always been attacked by the system. At Clara Barton, we have tried to point out that the administration wants us out of the school because we are outspoken fighters against racism and inequality.
Students and Parents Respond the Right Way!
The May 26 rally resulted from our strong and immediate response to the investigators’ attack. But it couldn’t have succeeded without years of organizing and support from our ties with parents at the school.
The DOE demanded “disciplinary action.” We responded right back. “Education, Not Investigation.” stickers went up all over the school. Flyers and CHALLENGEs were distributed outside the school. Students wrote their own flyer and started a petition inside the school.
On the day of the rally, some students escorted teachers Beckerman and Salak out of the building in a show of solidarity! The union held chapter meetings in support; the chapter leader even announced the protest on the school’s PA system. And several hundred CHALLENGEs were in people’s hands.
Although fascist despicable racist pig Principal Forman promised that the “disciplinary action” would come by May 27, there has been silence ever since. This is typical of the DOE’s Gestapo tactics. Maybe they are waiting for the last day of school, or the summer — they like to do their dirty work when no one is around. Maybe we put a little scare into them. They should be scared, because we are not done fighting back! After all, the fight for a communist world is a lifetime struggle. We need to toughen up, not only for this fight but for the many more coming.
BROOKLYN, N.Y., June 22 — “At a time when political attacks are met with little response, what you all are doing there gives others the example needed to fight back!” This was the message sent from a teacher in New Jersey to those involved in the struggle at Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, and a reminder of how our political work can inspire other workers and students.
As reported in last week’s CHALLENGE (6/22), more than 150 students and staff demonstrated in front of Clara Barton to protest the investigation of two communist teachers who attended a union rally with students in Washington, DC, last fall. It’s no accident that communists are being targeted by the Department of Education (DoE). Communists build class struggle and class consciousness. We struggle to win our class to see its power so that we can build a mass party to fight for revolution. At this rally, the largest and most visible action at the school this year, we did begin to see our strength.
In our continuing efforts to build the Party, more than 500 copies of CHALLENGE were distributed at Clara Barton last week. Students greeted the paper with enthusiasm. They read it carefully, line by line. There was a lot of discussion about the cover story — why did CHALLENGE call principal Forman a racist pig? Some thought that we needed to provide a more thorough explanation of why we regard him as racist. The ensuing discussions both clarified that point (see below) and also addressed a broader one: that capitalist schools can never serve the needs of working-class students. Students also began to wear 700 buttons with the slogan: “SCHOOLS NOT JAILS”.
Forman is a willing agent of the DoE. His job is to exert control over the students while implementing the DOE’s budget cuts and other tools of inequality. In a school system that is more than 70 percent black and Latino, these cuts are inherently racist. A decade after the Campaign for Fiscal Equity first won its case against the glaring funding disparities between city and suburban schools, the cutbacks continue to get worse each year.
At Clara Barton, the systematic racism in U.S. education is especially obvious. Forman was previously a leader of two other schools that closed after he led them to fail. His move to Clara Barton is a clear signal that the DOE doesn’t care about the students at this school. Several classes are still taught out-of-license by teachers with inadequate training. Forman has shown no interest in creating more challenging classes in the social studies department. The same room once used for student leadership classes is now designated for detention. Instead of empowering students, he’d rather punish them.
In particular, the principal has done nothing for the huge population of students from Haiti at Clara Barton. The Haitian Club’s former advisor found himself repeatedly harassed after the activist group organized anti-racist assemblies and debates. Forman has obstructed the creation of a soccer team, which these students — among many others — have long wanted. The fact is, students from Haiti face harsher discipline than other students at Barton, and often feel picked on and harassed.
So there is absolutely nothing positive the racist Forman has done for Clara Barton.
Cutting Bagels A ‘Security Breach’?
In the middle of Regents week, as graduating seniors waited to have their exams graded, there was another attack on teaching staff. Forman used a surveillance camera to determine who had brought a bread knife into the teachers’ workroom to cut bagels, supposedly a rules violation. This teacher was called in for a disciplinary meeting, although Forman claimed that he was only “gathering information.” We boldly challenged him in this meeting by wearing a sticker produced that weekend: “Here is MY bagel knife! Now I’ve created a security breach too!” The principal ultimately backed down. But this small victory will not be the end of this war. After all, we know what the real “violation” is: our political organizing in the school.
Forman has made it clear that he will stop at nothing to lash back. He has shown us that the same measures used to oppress students — like the cameras installed throughout the school — can and will be used against teachers, too.
The principal began by attacking communists in October and is now moving against anyone who will stand up or speak out for their students. This pattern of harassment is not limited to Clara Barton, of course. It’s part of the DOE’s bigger plan to crack down on teachers, especially any who fight back. The two communist teachers received an unsatisfactory rating towards the end of the school year. They are continuing to fight the principal’s harassment. Throughout the system, investigators are being called in over the most trivial incidents while thousands of teachers face layoffs. The DOE is attempting to keep us in retreat just when we need to mount a more militant offensive.
We need to follow the advice from a veteran teacher: “We have to keep up the fight! They don’t know us if they think we’re backing down. We better make people see that an injury to one is an injury to all, and they will be next if they don’t stand up now!”
